Photo Index - John Humphrey, Humphrey Machine Co. - 24 inch lag bed planer

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
John Humphrey, Humphrey Machine Co.
Keene, NH

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Planer, Wood
Machine Size:	24"
Submitted By:	Benjamin Campbell

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	24 inch lag bed planer
Date of Manufacturer:	circa 1868
Serial Number:
Last Updated	10/16/2006 7:20:40 PM

Comments:

Submitted is a circa 1868 24 inch lag/rotary bed planer manufactured in Keene New Hampshire by the firm of John Humphrey and used in the Tolman family water powered saw mill at Mosquitobush NH(a tiny mill hollow straddling the border of Nelson and Harrisville) until the mills dismantling in the 1940's and then sold to a fellow on the other side of town. Hoping to reunite the planer with the Humphrey sawmill, pulleys, and other artifacts from this mill site which I'd already come to own, I prayed that the machine hadn't met its fate with the scrapper. Upon inquiring I was led out to an old shed where shed sat all those years never having been powered up. Several hundred dollars and a handshake later and she was mine!

To the best of my knowledge she's never run a minute in her life powered by anything but the desire of water to return to the sea. The contrast is poetic if not profound between this machine, covered in 60+ year old grease and wood dust, and the mill site now completely reclaimed by nature save for a granite foundation and a few pitted iron relics. Most mills, especially of this vintage, went to the scrapper. The Tolmans appreciation for local history and fascination with the mechanical make this a rare exception.

Rotary bed planers have a particularly strong feed and were well adapted to green, frozen, and dimensionally inconsistent woods and less so to fine finish work.

I'd love to hear from any members who have information on this manufacturer or know the whereabouts of any of its products.

Photo 1:

Comments: This example was never fitted with in and out feed tables.
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Photo 2:

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